


Fractured Crystal

by Cepalespis28



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Cracked Gems, Delusions, Gem War, Gen, Illustrated, Post-Gem War, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-17
Updated: 2016-09-08
Packaged: 2018-08-09 07:34:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7792465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cepalespis28/pseuds/Cepalespis28
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On a mission a mistake is made, a bubble is popped at the Temple and the Crystal Gems and the residents of Beach City meet a walking, talking example of the full and terrible price of the Gem War</p><p> </p><p>Featuring the residents of Beach City finally getting to meet one of Stevens weird 'guardians' properly</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

 

**Tunguska Bay, Siberian Federation**

 

Stevens legs gave out and he sat down on the ground panting, the corrupted gems body was gone and the gem itself was floating in a pink bubble

“I'll...I'll just send this back then” he wheezed, spending all night and now most of the day hunting for this pair of corrupted gems had really done a number on him  
“Steven, it's OK to admit you're tired, here let me” Pearl said leaning down, only for Garnet to shake her head  
“No, Steven bubbled it, he should send it back, those are the rules”  
“Since when?” Pearl asked

“Since he bubbled this one” Garnet replied, adjusting her ever-present shades  
“Are you sure? We don't want anything going wrong when it gets back to the Temple” Pearl cautioned  
“It's fine Pearl...I'm just...just a little tired” Steven mumbled reaching out with his arm he batted the bubble away by mistake, then quickly poofed it as it was moving

“There...all done...” he mumbled, shuffling around so his cheeseburger backpack could work as a pillow, within seconds he was snoring away

“Garnet we can't wait, we need to get the other one!” Pearl insisted  
“You and Amethyst go on, I'll stay here and watch Steven” Garnet replied, sitting down nearby  
“You're watching him sleep?” Pearl asked, Garnet's silence and stare said all that needed saying and Pearl sheepishly turned and took off after the other corrupted gem with Amethyst in hot pursuit

 

 

**The Temple**

 

In the room near the Temples heart floated all the gems in their pink bubbles, a few were shards, fragments of the fallen they'd been able to locate after the wars end, the majority were bubbled corrupted gems, one bubble was just a bag of chaaaps and Centipeedles bubble floated alongside it. One wasn't like the others though, one pink bubble held a gem, a slender oval shaped yellow gem with a crack at the bottom, it bobbed along with the others, floating in one place as it had for over five thousand years. Civilizations, cultures and empires had risen, spread across the continents and oceans of earth and then fallen to nothing and the bubble had sat and floated there, a lone constant on the ever changing, ever shifting planet

Garnet would have had more indepth explanation for it, but, basically, sometimes things were astronomically unlikely and they happened anyway

The gem Steven had bubbled appeared with a soft popping sound, unlike all the others this one had been moving when he'd sent it back and so it kept moving once it had arrived, it knocked a few bubbles softly to the side, but hit the one holding the yellow gem with more force. It moved backwards, bounced off one root and was pierced by the tip of another, popping with a loud bang

The gem inside fell to the ground with a loud clink and then it began to glow, it rose back up in the air as a burst of pale yellow light surged from it, then spluttered and died. The gem fell back to the ground, tried again, spluttered again and fell again. Minutes ticked by, then an hour, then the gem glowed for a third time and lifted off the ground, the light appeared again, more slowly this time and gradually shifted into a humanoid form, then with a flash the light was gone and the gem rose to her feet slowly

 

 

She ran a hand through her hair and let out a low yawn

“I only took a nap, what happened?” she glanced down at the gem on her arm, her eyes widened for a second as her appearance shifted, her hair was now rougher and more unkempt, bags formed under her eyes and they faded a little, the bottom of her coat was now tattered and her chainmail was rougher with some of the links missing. Her colours faded, the bodystocking and coat now a lot more washed out and her skin darkened to give her a more sickly pallour. She shook her head to try and clear the cobwebs

“Ugh, this again? I told them I'm fine” she looked around for the exit “it's not like this war is gonna win itself” she said outloud as she headed for the door leading out of the Temple “time I got back into the action, bet they're all missing me already, hope Rose is ready for a surprise”

 

 

**Tunguska Bay, Siberian Federation**

 

As she watched Steven sleep Garnet idly started scrolling through the possibilities and futures, what few of the others, even Rose, failed to grasp about her power was that she had no filter. There was no off switch or barrier to eschew all the most unlikely and far out options for the future, that was something Garnet had had to learn herself like Sapphire had before her. After over five thousand years it had become reflex to quickly bring up, assess the likelihood of an event occurring and then giving it more conscious thought if it looked likely, cacheing it for later if it was but wasn't relevant then or ignoring it if it didn't. If she had to mull over each of the multitude of possibilities consciously before doing anything she'd have gone crazy long ago, her system was born of necessity, something she hadn't considered when she'd given Steven the future vision briefly. The guilt she felt for the stress and fear she'd caused him was still in her heart

Still, sometimes when she was bored or needed to kill some time she'd mull over some of the ones she'd discarded off-hand, some of them could be pretty funny and since she'd learned what had been going on with the artificial fusions, she'd needed a laugh or two. She smiled as the scenarios played out in her minds eye:

Peridot and Lapis becoming a couple, complete with a wedding out at the barn, that was what Peridot thought a wedding dress looked like?

Greg running for Mayor? Well if she could she'd probably vote for him

Peridot hearing about Dogcopter and trying to make a real life one for Steven? She may have to have a talk with her about that one, just in case

Orthoclase getting out? Yeah, that wasn't happening, ever

Garnet contented herself with the funnier and stranger what ifs while she waited for Steven to rest up

 

 

**The Temple**

 

The door split apart and Orthoclase stepped out, she suddenly froze, then her martial instinct kicked in and she threw herself behind the closest cover she could find then reached for her weapon, it got stuck halfway out and she had to pull on it quite hard to get it to exit the gem

“Come on, it's not that bad, get outta there!” she readied the short stabbing spear as she realized the space outside the Temple had changed and took it in

“Wha...” she could feel her body begin to tremble, her form began to distort, then she shook her head again, harder this time

“...what's Rose done now?” she glanced around the house, the crude food preparation area, the sleeping area, it looked like...

“Rose has got another toy?” she asked herself, jumping to land next to the bed, she reached down and nudged the hotdog duffel with the tip of her spear, she glanced at the nametag sewn onto it, the writing actually looked like writing and not a bunch of little pictures

“S-t-e-v-e-n? St-eve-n? Stee-ven? Steven?” she sounded out the name until it felt right, it didn't fit any of the human languages she knew “weird name, although I guess it's less grandiose than the Scorpion King” she thought back “strange man, never got what Rose saw in him” she noticed a discarded shirt on the floor, it was far too small for a fully grown human

“Has she...has she adopted one?” she looked around in surprise “this is...Pearl should have made her get one those furry things if she wanted a pet” she scratched her head trying to remember what they were called, a deg? A dag? A dog?

“She can't just pick one up and keep it, it's mother won't want it back now and we're going to be stuck taking care of it, or she is, I'm not doing it for her, it's irresponsible in wartime” Orthoclase made a note to have a long talk with Rose about the limits they needed to impose on their relationships with the humans, this was crossing a big line. Though if she could afford to waste time finding one and building it a place to live the war had to be going well for them

“And it's such a fancy place for it, so many high end luxuries, she must really care about this one” she laughed as she walked to the door

“Honestly Rose and her humans, they'll be the death of her one day”


	2. Chapter 2

Tunguska Bay, Siberian Federation  
  
  
  
Pearl knelt down to inspect the track the creature had left in the soil, it was big but it almost looked like it was made by a snake, like the really, really big snakes they had in South America or Southeast Asia. Unless you knew what the patterns of scales made from crystal looked like, she stood up  
  
“It's this way” and began walking off, following the tracks as best she could, every so often it would pass over bare rock and the tracks would turn into a myriad of scratches, some cutting into the rock itself  
  
“So who is it?” Amethyst asked, Pearl stopped and looked around at her teammate  
“What?”  
“They're all Crystal Gems right?”  
“Well some Homeworld gems couldn't get off planet in time before the Diamonds launched their final option” Pearl proffered  
“Is this one of them?”  
“I never saw all of them”  
“But is it one you know?” Pearls hands tightened around the grip on her spear until they began to turn faintly blue  
  
“I don't know and I don't want to know Amethyst” she said curtly, looking down at the tracks, she'd recognized a few of the ones they'd found and bubbled over the millennia, Steven tended to come up with his own names for them and she preferred using them, like the Slinker, it was less painful to do that than think of that...thing by the name of the Crystal Gem she'd once been  
  
“Why? Don't you wanna help them?” Amethyst asked as they kept moving  
  
'There is no helping them' she thought as she trudged onwards, Rose had thought she could, but she'd never been able to do it, oh she'd tried, she'd tried and tried and tried but she couldn't do anything. Her tears could heal cracks, not corruption  
  
“We help them by bubbling them until Steven can learn how, that's how we help them Amethyst” she replied, Pearl wasn't lying, not fully, for now it really was all they could do  
  
  
  
  
The Big Doughnut, Beach City  
  
  
Sadie was stuck behind the counter, alone, as per usual since Lars had asked her to cover having gone home early, he'd gotten a call, went into the back and then burst out, yelling “family emergency, be back soon” or something like that over his shoulder as he'd disappeared out the door, leaving her with two options, go after him and drag him back to find out if it was real or stay and do him the favour  
  
Luckily for her there was only an hour left to go before their shift was over and it was positively dead, most of the boardwalk had closed up for the day or was preparing to, the Big Doughnut only stayed open so long because it was the last stop for most of the other business owners before they went home themselves  
  
So it was a surprise when she saw someone walking towards the door from around the side of the cliffs, from the direction of Stevens house. And it was a gem she hadn't seen before  
  
The gem wandered towards her in a zig-zag sort of pattern, looking around at the beach, the store and the boardwalk, a few times she stopped and pointed with...was that a weapon?! Well Garnet sometimes came in with her gauntlets on and Pearl once pulled her spear when a gull got out of the vents and startled her. Sadie resolved to give this one the benefit of the doubt as she opened the door and came inside and she gave the standard greeting  
  
  
“Welcome to the Big Doughnut!” the gem didn't seem to have heard her as she stooped down to look at a display case  
  
“Can I help you?” she asked politely, the gem rose back up and peered at a freezer next to the case  
“Lie-en, lee-on, lion? Yes, lion...lekers? Lion locors? Lion lacquers? Lion lickers?” she sounded the words out until they made sense  
“Oh them, yea they're a big seller” Sadie told her, adding “I didn't know Steven liked them” the gem gave her a strange look before something clicked in her eyes  
  
“Steven? Oh you mean the child? The one who lives in the house attached to the temple?”  
“Yea...you...you aren't here for him are you?  
“Should I be?” the gem asked, confused, then her eyes hardened “no I'm not, if Rose wanted him she can look after him, I'm not feeding him and neither should she, that's his mothers job”  
“Steven's mom died” Sadie said, the gem looked at her in shock then she blinked for a split second too long and her expression changed to one of sympathy  
  
“I had no idea! The poor boy, no wonder Rose took him in, she's so good like that, such a big heart for everyone gem or human, even Pearl wouldn't have been able to stop her”  
“You know Pearl?”  
“Yes, we've fought against and alongside each other many times”  
“It's just I've never seen you around here before”  
  
“Oh how rude of me, I do apologize” she bowed slightly “I'm Orthoclase, formally of Yellow Diamonds court and strategic co-ordinator for the Ninth through Thirteenth Quartz Brigades” she brushed her hand against the star on her breastplate “current Crystal Gem and field commander of the human auxiliary forces”  
“I'm Sadie, nice to meet you Orthoclase” she held up her fist for a fist-bump, Orthoclase looked down at it with curiosity then slowly, tentatively reached out, grasped it and let go  
“Nice to meet you too” she looked around “so what food do you sell here? Just the lion lickers?”  
  
“Well we used to sell cookie cats too but mostly we do doughnuts” Orthoclase titled her head quizzically  
“Dough-nots?”  
“Yea doughnuts, we get them sent from corporate but Steven always likes them” she motioned to the case “you wanna try one?” Orthoclase was suddenly painfully aware she had no idea if this settlement used ingots, credit, grain, those little round metal discs or if they even had a form of currency and still bartered for everything  
  
“I'm really sorry but I haven't got anything to barter” Othoclase said apologetically, in her experience most human were fine with using bater as a fallback, money was kind of a new thing for them  
“It's OK, first ones on the house”  
“It's not on the roof of a dwelling it's right here” Orthoclase replied pointing to the doughnut, Sadie remembered what kind of being she was dealing with  
  
“No no I mean it's free, you don't have to pay” phew, that was a relief  
“Thank you very much”  
  
“Which do you want?” Sadie asked, Orthoclase glanced down at the cabinet, she had absolutely no idea what a doughnut was, let alone how to tell a good one from a bad one  
“Surprise me”  
“Here, this is my favourite type” Said replied, holding out a ring doughnut with pink frosting and sprinkles on a plate, Orthoclase reached out with her spear and deftly hooked it on the tip, flipping the spear back up she took a closer look at it. It looked like some sort of fried dough or bread, well some humans could make candles from fat, not too much of a stretch to think they'd be frying things in it. It smelled sweet too and they did like their sweets, once Rose showed them what sugar was they'd gone mad for it. And then she'd had to rope in Bismuth to play dentist and half her soldiers had to have teeth pulled, that had been a fun day. The next morning they made a rule: No sharing tech, ideas or, well, anything with the humans, ever.  
  
Pity some Crystal Gems kept breaking it  
  
“It smells nice”  
“It's not so fresh, when they get here in the morning they're a lot nicer, especially when I get them off the delivery truck”  
“You manage this food store?”  
“Kinda, Lars is supposed to be here too but he had a family emergency”  
“You shouldn't desert your post or shirk your duty, family be dammed”  
“It's alright” she sighed and slumped down, resting her arms on the counter and looked downwards glumly “I'm used to it by now” Orthoclase froze  
  
  
Used to it?  
  
Used to being used?  
  
Abused?  
  
Throw up and thrown away when it suited her?  
  
Pearl...  
  
  
Sadie looked up and saw Orthoclase standing there, still as a statue, staring off into space  
  
“Orthoclase?” the cracked gem suddenly jolted into action and glanced around, confused, in a panic, like she didn't recognize where she was  
  
  
  
  
  
Sadie wasn't sure things were OK, she knew Pearl could be funny and Garnet sometimes felt like she was lost in thought even when you were talking to her but this wasn't like that, it felt like Orthoclase wasn't here with her anymore. Like she was somewhere else, somewhere she didn't like being  
  
  
“Are you alright?” the gem focused on her voice, then back on her and her expression warmed, snapping back to reality  
“Sorry Sadie, kind of zoned out for a minute there” her cheeks flushed with a yellow tint, Sadie thought the gem was embarrassed by what happened and she took a bite of the doughnut  
  
“Wow...this is remarkable, could do with some fire salts though”, chewing and savouring the taste  
“We've tried to before, it didn't go down well” Sadie muttered  
“You've had fire salts?”  
“Steven helped me get back at Lars with them once, didn't go well”  
  
“Lars has done this before?” Orthoclase asked  
“Yea, he's kinda lazy” she sighed again “but he makes it up to me most of the time so it's not a big deal I guess” she rested her head on the counter and felt a hand touch her shoulder  
  
“Sadie, you don't look like it's not a big deal” Orthoclase said  
“I wish he'd listen to me and not just go thinking I'll cover every single time”  
“If you don't pull rank sometimes subordinates forget whose in charge”  
“What if they don't listen?” Orthoclase smiled and spun her spear around, tossed it into the air and then caught it  
  
“I got my command because Rose Quartz saw I could do it and I proved it, after I defected some of the gems weren't sure they could trust one of Yellow Diamonds court in a command position, so I showed them I could. I showed them that I was in charge, that they should follow me and my orders because it was the best thing for them to do” she looked down at Sadie “I don't know who put you in charge here but they wouldn't have made you the commander if you couldn't handle it, so show Lars, show him why you're in charge, don't be afraid to challenge him if he tries this again, if you don't respect yourself, he won't either”  
  
Sadie looked down at her hands  
  
“I'm the supervisor here”  
“Then supervise him, don't be afraid to show him whose in charge” Sadie slammed her hand into her fist  
“You're right, from now on no more player two” Orthoclase smiled  
  
“That's the spirit, you'll be a commander yet” Sadie looked at Orthoclase. The gem was balancing her spear on her fingertip point first  
  
“How do you do that?” Orthoclase looked at the spear  
“This?” she flipped it into the air to catch it on her other index fingertip “practice”  
“I've got an hour until my shifts over and I have to close up. Could...could you teach me? I always wanted to try fencing but my mom always goes overboard when I say I wanna try stuff”  
  
“I think I can spare a little time for you Sadie, a good commander should know how to defend herself, it might help you keep Lars in line too” Sadie led her into the back and picked up a broken mop, missing its head the handle was roughly the same length as Orthoclase's spear  
  
“Sorry, it's all I've got”  
“No no it's fine I've trained humans with worse tools” Orthoclase inspected it, trimmed the sharp broken end with her spear and then handed it back to Sadie  
  
“Alright, first of all you stand like this...”  
  
For the next hour Sadie learned how to spar, for her it was something new, for Orthoclase it was routine, another human to train, another potential soldier being readied for Rose's war

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since the map of earth we've seen int he show has a massive hole in Siberia I decided to do a little old building and introduced the Siberian Federation, a government that controls most of Siberia and its most prosperous area, the Bay of Tunguska. Think Hudsons Bay but a bit more habitable, emphasis on the 'bit'
> 
>  
> 
> Next chapter: The King of Beach City


End file.
